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The Need to be Driven

Shaykh Muhammad Al-`Abdah

category: Islamic Identity

source: Islaam.com

reads: 4356

Of the worst issues that a nation might be afflicted with is for its individuals to be possessors of limited drive, and restricted outlooks. These individuals will find themselves dwarfed by the momentous changes and turns of history, and so do not think of the possibility of influencing change or attempting future projects themselves. It is difficult to treat someone who believes that he will never recover, for he is the slave of a submissive mentality, who has never accomplished an independent action or a large collective one, never trained for leadership and so when surprised with a novel matter, he retreats with fright as he has no experience of dealing with such a matter!

The lack of self-confidence is a disease which destroys the Da`wah and its proponents, letting it exist but briefly and achieving nothing of lasting note. Even when Allah creates - for such a Da`wah - an opportunity as a mercy from Him towards His believing servants, it is wasted without utilization. Moreover, when seeing what is required from the Call or what people expect, some Callers become dizzy with confusion. Yet this is not a surprise when one thinks of how many such opportunities have been squandered due to this lack of self-confidence.

The way out of this morass has many openings. One of which is the fact that Allah's earth is vast to those intent of inaugurating larger project. For the abilities are available but need the strong will and the sincere conviction in Allah's promise. We have in the story of Musa `alayhis salam an awakening lesson; for Allah sent him to relieve his people of servitude and humiliation and take them towards supremacy on Earth, and the establishment of Allah's law. But his people's characters were feeble and trivial and they lacked the ability to carry out this great task. That was due to their long period of oppression under the Pharaohs and their servanthood to them, so hollow and insignificant became their natures that they believed themselves to be unworthy custodians of the message.

On the other side, the Arab who received the direct Prophetic education was untainted by corrupting influences, and had managed to internalise hopes and ambitions translated thereafter into the storming of dangers and roaming of seas in order to deliver the message of Islam. Muslims have to dislodge themselves from environments which shackle them; in such surroundings trivial problems are made to seem as part and parcel of a larger more intractable whole, against which any effort is hopeless. Such individuals ought to believe in their own abilities and efficiency through which they are capable of grand actions.